Last month the fashion world mourned the loss of a pioneer, Andre Leon Talley. Talley was not a fashion designer. He was not the creative director of a major luxury fashion house or brand. Nor was he the CEO or financial investor in a fashion brand. But Andre Leon Talley is responsible for placing himself directly in spaces that traditionally were inherently restrictive and segregated. Talley ascended to a level of stature and influence within the fashion world that has not been seen since except for Virgil Abloh, the late designer and founder of the Off White and the first Black man to head up the men’s line at Louis Vuitton. Abloh died tragically last year of brain cancer after leading Louis Vuitton for three years and being an innovator of marrying streetwear and luxury fashion. Talley and Abloh are celebrated firsts in a world where those of African descent have seldom been seen or heard. If acknowledged at all, they are viewed as exceptions to the rule or prodigies, relegated to a problematic footnote in the annals of fashion history.
Andre Leon Talley traversed the halls of fashion history by volunteering for the indomitable Vogue editor in chief, Diana Vreeland, at the Metropolitan Museum of the Costume Art Institute, then was recommended to Andy Warhol, who thereby gave him a job, first in the front office as a receptionist, and soon as a fashion columnist in Interview magazine. This led to a trip to Paris where a storied friendship began with the one and only Karl Lagerfeld. Tall, towering over many at 6’7’’, with beautiful chocolate glimmering skin, and a wardrobe supplemented from Lagerfeld’s own closet, Talley became an extraordinary fixture on the front rows of runway shows in a sea of Whiteness. Many times the only African American face, the obstacles Talley encountered as a talented fashion journalist were numerous. But his work spoke for itself. He was incomparable and no matter how prejudicial the perception, it was undeniable that Talley belonged in the fashion industry and was an asset. Teri Agins, a fashion journalist who worked beside Talley, recalled: “You have to remember that at the time in the ’70s, fashion was a very elite, rarefied gated community of wealthy Europeans and wealthy white people in America. It was not egalitarian or anything like it is now. André was not there because they needed a Black person. André was there because they needed a connoisseur. He was part of the club.” With a stellar fashion journalism career that included Women’s World Daily (WWD), Vanity Fair, and House & Garden, the defining moment for Talley and fashion insiders was his time at Vogue. Talley was the fashion news director (1983-’87), creative director (1988-1995), and editor-at-large (1998-2013), and is the author of New York Times bestseller “Chiffon Trenches,” “ALT: A Memoir,” “Little Black Dress,” and “ALT: 365.” The documentary of his life and career, “The Gospel According to Andre Leon Talley,” was released in 2018.
Talley was never the token African American. If he was in the room, on whatever scene, he was there because he earned that moment in the spotlight. Designers were his confidantes. Lagerfeld was not the only designer who listened to his musings and counsel. Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Bob Mackie, Diane Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs, Valentino, and Tom Ford are just a handful of designers who trusted his opinion and critiques on fashion, and counted Talley as a close friend. “His giant persona sometimes overshadowed the fact that he was a brilliant journalist and an incredible writer,” Tom Ford reminisced. “As a designer, I felt that I often wanted to show off for him. He could look at one of my collections and basically recite all of the things that would have been on my mood board that season. He saw things or rather he ‘intuited’ them like no other editor I have ever known. A rave from him meant so much to me. I adored him.”
Talley took advantage of his stature as the only African American in a prominent position in the fashion world. Models such as Iman, Beverly Johnson, Pat Cleveland, Bethann Hardison, and Naomi Campbell, who found themselves in a similar position, all found support and an ally in Talley. He mentored up-and-coming African American designers and was their beacon in an industry that was generally tone deaf towards designers of color. Some of those designers, especially African American men in the world of fashion, would go on to create paths and make history for themselves as well. Jay Jaxon, Patrick Kelly, Willi Smith and Stephen Burrows became world-renowned designers with their own unique fashion introspection that could not be denied.
Virgil Abloh made history at Louis Vuitton with the marriage of streetwear and haute couture, but Willi Smith (1948-1987) has the distinction of being the first to do it with his streetwear collection “Williwear.” Designer T-shirts in collaboration with other artists helped to propel “Williwear” in its second year to gross $5 million in sales. Educated at Parsons School of Fashion Design and Philadelphia College of Art, Willi Smith believed that money should not be the deciding factor as to who had access to the best fashion has to offer. “What’s the point if you can’t put the clothes anywhere in this world? Clothing should go hand in hand with society.” Haute couture did not limit or put a period on Smith’s point of accessibility because he would partner up with Butterick and McCall to design patterns for the home sewer. Nominated for the COTY award in 1971, Smith would go on to win in 1983. Willi Smith was a world traveler and was inspired by the fabrics and fashion of India and the Motherland, Africa, most notably the country of Senegal. Willie Smith would become one of the casualties of the AIDS epidemic n 1987, but his influence on the fashion industry will not be forgotten.
Jay Jaxon has been an influential fashion designer for almost 50 years. Jaxon, a pioneer of color, in 1968 was the first African American to work as a designer in a Paris fashion house, and the first American to lead a Parisian couture brand, Jean-Louis Scherrer. Women’s Wear Daily noted in 1970 that “Jay Jaxon is the new designer at Scherrer these days. He’s got a good color sense, which shows best in those beautifully printed rounded shawls he puts over late day dresses.” Jaxon explained, “I like a classy look rather than a classic look. My type of girl likes to buy clothes that she can wear for a year or two and still feel luxurious in.” Jaxon is not credited for the designs that he studied and created for the houses of Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, and Christian Dior in the 1970s. His artistry was basically “hidden in the fashion and historical narrative” but a retrospective on his work in 2019 at the Queens Library in New York, “titled JAY JAXON: Fashion Designer, Le Couturier, Costumer | 40 Years of Fashion Design Brilliance,” shined the light on this prolific designer. Understanding the prejudice and the racism of the fashion industry at the time, Jay Jaxon was a fashion entrepreneur who not only designed for his own fashion house, but also for other houses and brands as well as celebrities like Pierre Cardin, Jill Richards, Luther Vandross, Diahann Carroll, Sammy Davis Jr., and Thelma Houston. Jaxon worked as a costumer in Hollywood on some notable projects such as the film “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” or television shows “Ally McBeal,” “The Division,” and “Sabrina: The Teen-aged Witch.” Jay Jaxon died in 2006 of cancer. Though his name is not readily known as a designer, Jay Jaxon, born Eugene Jackson in Queens, N.Y. in 1941, has left an indelible mark on the world of fashion like his fashion contemporaries, Willi Smith, and Andre Leon Talley. These icons in the world of fashion have provided a blueprint for the up-and-coming generation of African American men designers such as LaQuan Smith, Kirby Jean-Raymond of Pyer Moss, Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing, and Telfar Clemmons of Telfar. Each of these designers are bringing their artistic gifts to the world of fashion with dazzling, brilliant sparks of light reminiscent of the grandeur of the history of African American men in fashion.
No Comment